North Hampshire CCG to merge with five others in April to create one Hampshire-wide body
The clinical commissioning group (CCG) in North Hampshire is set to merge with five others from April – creating one Hampshire-wide body, despite concerns raised by councillors about how this move may reduce local-focused services.
According to the Basingstoke Gazette, the clinical-led body has given assurances that local-focused services will be “very much retained”.
Set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in England, clinical commissioning groups are NHS organisations that are responsible for commissioning primary health care services, such as GP practices, in their designated area.
The single Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight CCG will replace the current Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership of CCGs – which has seen the close joint working of Fareham and Gosport, Isle of Wight, North Hampshire, and South Eastern Hampshire CCGs over the last three years – as well as Southampton City CCG and West Hampshire CCG.
Speaking at a meeting of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s Community, Environment and Partnerships Committee last week, Dr Matt Nisbet, a GP at Crown Heights in Basingstoke and North Hampshire CCG clinical lead for business and partnership, told members that the new network was a result of “central policy”.
Voicing her concerns, Councillor Jenny Vaux said that she was “very concerned” about the lack of local feel to health here, a sentiment which was also echoed by Councillor Tony Jones.
Dr Nisbett, however, said that the change in structure is aimed at both keeping a local-focus, while benefiting from joint-up working across the region.
He said: “I understand your concern around that. When CCGs were established one of the primary objectives is that they were clinically-led and local-focused, and I think to a large extent they have succeeded in that.
“But there have been things that have been lost in that as well, so this latest structural change was designed to address that. So whilst it’s true that in April the CCGs will merge into a single one, we are still very much retaining a local structure as well.”
The NHS Long Term Plan recommended that Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) will cover the whole country by April 2021 and that there would be ‘typically’ one CCG for each ICS. As a result, CCGs have been merging in England in preparation for this change, with work on these still going ahead as planned for April 2021.
